Bitcoin and ethereumBoth surged over 20% in the past week, bringing the cumulative value of all digital assets back to the critical $1 trillion level once again.
This is the first time the entire cryptocurrency market has appreciated so highly since FTX plunged in early November and prices surged.
It peaked at $1.15 trillion on Sunday night and is now valued at $1.01, according to CoinGecko data.
The main factor behind the latest uptrend is mostly Bitcoin (BTC) price, which hit $20,873 by press time after hitting a two-month high of $21,446 late Sunday night. retreated to
The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has registered a modest gain of 0.5% over the past 24 hours and a 22.3% surge in a week.
Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, followed a similar pattern, registering a 20.7% increase in a week. Currently trading at $1,548 per CoinGecko.
Several other major cryptocurrencies such as Avalanche (+38.9%), NEAR (+34.4%), Aave (+33.3%) and Polkadot (+21.8%) also boast double-digit weekly profits. One of the biggest winners. So far he is Solana (SOL) who has seen a dramatic rise of over 64% over the period.
With a market capitalization of over $400 billion, Bitcoin currently holds nearly 40% share of the total market, followed by Ethereum (ETH) at 18.3%.
Bitcoin mining difficulty hits all-time high
BTC’s price started rising last week in anticipation of the release of the Federal Reserve’s December Consumer Price Index report. The report largely met market expectations, showing signs that inflation in the US economy is cooling.
The latest price action sees Bitcoin’s mining difficulty (a measure of how hard it is to solve the cryptographic puzzles to create blocks on the network) climb by more than 10% to a record high of 37.59 T. It also happened sometimes. 34.09 T on Sunday, according to CoinWarz data.
Difficulty is adjusted every two weeks, with the next adjustment coming on January 28th.
Bitcoin difficulty measurement from 2013 to present. Source: Coinwards.
Rising difficulty is largely an indicator of a strong and growing network, suggesting a general recovery of confidence in the market. However, it still comes at a price for miners who need to expend more resources to generate the same amount of coins as before.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed by the authors are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment or other advice.
Stay on top of crypto news and get daily updates in your inbox.
